St. Louis City Museum

While in Missouri we went to the City Museum in St. Louis.  We didn't do everything simply because there was so much to do. I definitely want to go back on our next trip to Missouri. It's not really a museum (at least what we saw), but an old building converted into a huge inside playground that rivals playgrounds in Japan.

It's difficult to put into words the type of experience that we had. 

Words to describe it would include - dangerous, fun, wet, dirty, hot, dark, exhilarating, imaginative, hard metal, sparkly mirrors, recycled (everything), tunnels, slides, ladders.

AMAZING!

We decided to start on the roof and work our way down. On the roof is a large dome. Inside is a large tire rope swing. On the underside of the dome is a ladder/tunnel thing that you can climb up and get to the top of the dome. It looked painful on my knees, so I just took pictures.

 There's also a 1940s ferris wheel.

 

 Lisa (my sister) and Nadia (my niece) enjoying the ride.

Jackson loved walking on the steps in the pond.

  Erin and Howie are in there.

 Inside was a so fun! The ceiling looked like it was made out of parachute scraps. I'm not sure what it was, but the effect was amazing. These pictures are terrible and do not do this place justice. There were caves, slides, crevices, tunnels and hidden passages everywhere.  There were 4 adults and 6 children in our group. It was really hard to keep an eye on everyone because the kids would just scatter everywhere.

 

 Jack in one of the iron tubes.

Howard getting ready to go down the Monster Slide.

I was next. Those are my knees and Howard was at the bottom.

Metal tunnels in the ceiling. It was like McDonald's play-tubes on steroids.

Lisa and Levi being silly. To the right of Levi is Jack on a roller slide (just like in Japan).

Amish Country

  While visiting Missouri we went on a little trip to Amish country, about 30 minutes away from my sister's home in Columbia. I'll be honest, the main reason why I wanted to go was to *see* the Amish people. Of course that would be rude if that's all we did, so we made sure that we purchased items. We brought home tomatoes, jam, cookies, cinnamon rolls, and tummies full of pie. It was a wonderful step back in time and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting and talking with the Amish.  My children were especially interested in the children and enjoyed the interaction.

For the most part the camera stayed in the car, but I asked one kind lady if I could take a picture of her chicks. She said I could take pictures, just as long as she wasn't in the picture.  I snapped a few quickly before I put the camera back in the car.

We went with my sister and her two children. Having 6 young children in tow was a delightful surprise for the Amish. We received a lot of positive comments and questions. Several of the older ladies gushed at how "blessed" we were and then would tell us stories of their 10 or 12 children and 80+ grandchildren.

Gateway Arch

 Our summer vacation plans were a little wacky this summer. Our first plan fell through, and then our second plan fell through. We had a sheduled trip to visit my sister in Missouri in August, and since our July plans didn't work out, we bumped our trip up to July.

We had a nice time being "tourists" with my sister and her family. Our first stop was the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I went when I was a teenager, but Howard and the kids had never been. We all enjoyed ourselves.

 

The waiting area before we boarded the "pods" that took us to the top of the Arch.

 Erin joined my sister's family on the ride to the top since there is only room for 5 people in a pod.

 The boys thought the ride up was pretty fun.

(l-r) Jackie, Nadia, Levi, Howie, Erin

 Looking west over St. Louis.

 Looking at the south side of the Arch with the Mississippi river to the east.

 Howard enjoying the view.

 Normally the grass is green, but the drought has really taken its toll on the landscape.

Howie decided to take a few pictures with the camera. He did a nice job!

Summertime

 We've had a nice summer so far. In the first part of July...

 we went to a car show.

 

  

we went to a kite show.

 saw a fantastic fireworks show in Edmond.

played with a new backyard friend.

enjoyed our dogs.

We've also spent time at the pool, library, the movies, going out to lunch, and sleeping in.